Metaverse, NFT and Smart Contracts: Brands, Myths and Much More

The advertising world is witnessing a revolution in the way of approaching digital and innovation, this is due to the flooded news of Smart Contracts, NFT, Metaverse and Wallets’ adoption across the globe and like any trend, some brands are excelling in their approach where others are falling into the trap of adopting without a purpose.

There’s no secret formula (until now) that will ensure success in the crypto world but there’s a hygiene task list that needs to be ticked before stepping into what is going to be the new normal. 

In this article I’m going to (try) list down what we have witnessed to be the necessities for any idea:

Find Your Purpose

It is no secret that more than 90% of the recent projects will fail in the near future and that is due to the fact that brands are rushing into adopting this trend without finding their purpose.

Finding your purpose is necessary to succeed—blockchain is an infrastructure that Smart Contracts, NFT, Metaverse and Wallets are built around, and building a brand infrastructure gives you the chance to evolve and improve side by side to the evolution of the blockchain projects and technology. None of the Metaverse projects are done, and are all under development, which means that approaching NFT and Metaverse or any other segment as a “one off idea” is like rolling a dice and hoping for the best.

If your purpose is to build a community, then build an infrastructure for that community that keeps evolving but please don’t build a virtual version of your physical product and call it NFT and mark it as your entry into the crypto world.

In simple words, think big and don’t limit yourself to the gimmicky adoption.

Wallets can be used as a proof of identity which will soon replace all third-party identification techniques bringing an opportunity for more personalization and one to one communication between brands and consumers.

NFT and Smart NFT: both are unique identifiers as well, which means it holds a limitless opportunity for community building. NFTs can be used to authorise access, unlock a number of perks and much more… it’s certainly not only a profile picture, a jpeg or a .mp4 video.

Metaverse: Metaverse is NOT only a game, Metaverse(s) is an environment that brings people together for an experience(s). This experience can be team building, meeting, brainstorming, competition, survey—Metaverse can be anything and everything and for sure it’s bigger than hosting a concert.

Therefore, it is recommended to take a step back and look at how blockchain can enhance your business model and engagement techniques, and how these unique identifiers can open doors for targeting, retargeting, communication and personalization in the marketing and media world.

Interoperability

You’ve probably heard of this term (or not). In a few words, it’s the action of carrying or transferring your digital assets to wherever you go in the virtual world. Sounds exciting and great, right? 

As exciting as this may sound, there’re a lot of feasibility challenges that hopefully will get resolved soon.

Given the fact that experiences and platforms are built using different technologies and with different methodologies, it’s still unclear how any object can be compatible in all platforms. While we understand that profiles pictures, jpegs, soundtracks and effects have standard formats that can be exchanged easily, the more you think of 3D models, functionality of the objects and the coding behind it, it gets more challenging in terms of adoption. 

Now you must be thinking “all these experiences and platforms have blockchain methodology in common”. However, blockchain is the decentralized back-end which technically is not the issue, the issue is in the application itself.

Obviously, I’m not in any way saying that this won’t be resolved in the future but until now it’s still unclear how technology will be repurposed to solve this issue.

That said, Interoperability is one of the most important factors to keep in mind when crafting your next idea, build an idea that will work cross-platform and stay open to fine tune it when the technology allows.

Therefore, planning and understanding the landscape is necessary before stepping in. There’re a lot of hidden opportunities sitting behind these big buzz words, there are opportunities for data collection, data integration, personalization, communication, engagement and much more than just a gimmicky approach.